


We Hold Each Other

by nessnessquik



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Come on now we all know this is what they really wanted to do, Fluff, For the Face My Enemy anniversary!, In which Philinda are "forced" to get closer than they intended, Skye is a total philinda shipper, but also can't help but being grossed out because /parents/, completely ignoring the angst in this episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 16:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5011015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nessnessquik/pseuds/nessnessquik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate version of the Philinda dancing scene from 2x04 where May and Coulson choose a different way to deal with Talbot's sudden appearance. </p><p>Title is from A Great Big World's "Hold Each Other" (go listen and have major Philinda feels).</p><p>Happy "Face My Enemy" anniversary, fellow Philinda shippers!</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Hold Each Other

* * *

“I can’t believe they actually turned off their comms.” Skye muttered to herself, typing away furiously on her laptop.

She trusted May and Coulson, knew they were good enough to handle themselves, but anything could happen in the field. If something went wrong, she and the rest of the team would need to know immediately.

Skye had never really told them in so many words, but she cared about the two of them deeply; she just wanted to make sure they were safe.

“Ah ha. Gotcha.” she said under her breath, smirking as she pulled up the recently hacked camera feed from the ballroom on her laptop. She couldn’t listen to their conversation, but at least she could watch over them.

Trip, Hunter, Fitz, and Mack were in a conversation with their backs to her, completely oblivious as Skye’s mouth dropped open in shock.

May and Coulson were  _dancing_.

Not just the standard high school Homecoming “let’s just sway back and forth because neither of us actually know how to dance” Dance.

No.

This was a close, sensual “we know all the steps perfectly by heart and could be contestants on Dancing With The Stars” dance. They were definitely outshining everyone else on the floor.

Skye’s hand came up to cover her mouth as she watched May’s leg wrap around Coulson before he dipped her. She couldn’t believe how close they were dancing. She’d always thought of them as a pair—you didn’t usually see one without the other for very long—and had joked to Jemma that they acted like an old married couple a few times, but this was different.

They looked like they were actually… _in love_.

Skye stared at the screen, mesmerized as they continued their dance. She could see their faces clearly, could see their mouths moving, but she couldn’t read them well enough to know what they were saying; although it looked like Coulson was probably teasing May at the moment, if his smirk and her half-hearted glare was anything to go by. 

Skye was always amazed at how much he got away with when it came to May. Not to say that she wasn’t playful with anyone else, because Skye had noticed that side of her coming out more and more lately with herself and the rest of the team. But Coulson teased her beyond what anyone else would dare, and still somehow managed to stay in one piece. It was a miracle, really.

Now Coulson was holding May tight against him, beaming at her with that soft, intimate smile he rarely showed anymore, and she was  _smiling back._

It was truly a picture perfect moment.

(Not that Skye was saving any screen shots to her computer to remember this (and possibly use as blackmail) by. That was absurd. She would never!)

In fact, Skye found herself flushing a little bit, embarrassed that she was witnessing such a private moment, but she just couldn’t tear her eyes away. She never thought she’d say it, but they looked adorable together. And if she had been one of those people in that ballroom, she definitely would have bought their cover as a husband and wife of many years.

Their faces changed again, becoming more serious as they spoke, but when May stiffened slightly and spun Coulson around to face the entrance, Skye knew something was off. She switched the camera feeds briefly, and her eyes widened again as she saw General Talbot walking into the ballroom.

That was unexpected.

Skye waited for Coulson and May to turn their comms back on and let the team know, but instead, they resumed their dancing. Although now they looked like they had a direction: the less crowded hallway near the back of the ballroom, Skye guessed. 

* * *

“What could he possibly be doing here?” Melinda murmured to Phil as they danced their way to the back of the room. She was glad that awful conversation had been interrupted, but wished it had been because of something more pleasant and less dangerous than Talbot showing up during their mission.

Phil leaned down, his smile in place as he maintained his cover. “I don’t know,” he replied quietly, speaking into her ear. His breath tickled, and the proximity of his lips made Melinda feel warm. Her heart started beating faster. “But I have a feeling we’re gonna find out.”

Melinda looked up at him, smiling big as if he’d made a joke. Grinning at Phil wasn’t nearly as hard as it had been with the strangers she’d had to mingle with earlier. She’d forgotten how easy it was to go undercover with him; pretending to be Phil’s significant other was the most natural cover she’d ever had.

It was a dangerous realization.

“We need a more private place to consult with the team, but we also need to maintain the upper hand,” Phil continued, smoothly maneuvering them both around another couple. “Contact with Talbot needs to be initiated by us first.”

“Agreed.”

Only a few more feet till the empty corridor.

Melinda’s eyes flickered behind Phil and her smile faded. “Guess who just decided to take a turn towards our exit?”

“I should have known this wouldn’t be easy,” he sighed as he swayed Melinda back and forth in his arms, trying not to think about how  _wonderful_  it felt to hold her. Images of him burying his face in the crook of her neck and kissing her exposed skin (he _really_ liked that dress) threatened to overwhelm him. 

 _Mission. We’re on a mission,_  he reminded himself forcefully. They were professionals. They could separate their cover personas from reality. They’d been doing it for years, why should this be any different?

“Think we should risk another turn around the dance floor or should we pull a Cairo?” Phil asked, scanning the room as an excuse not to look at Melinda. He needed a second to pull himself together.

Melinda shook her head. “We need to make a move now, but Cairo won’t work in this situation.” She hesitated before continuing. “What we did to keep our cover in Belarus should work well enough. Take us over to the column at your 4 o'clock.”

His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he followed her directions immediately. Belarus. That mission felt like a million years ago. “Are you s—”

“Shut up and kiss me, Phil.”

They moved at the same time, lips meeting in the middle as they reached the tall white column.

* * *

Skye wanted to scream.

She wasn’t sure whether it was out of joy or horror.

Sure, May and Coulson were sweet together. They balanced each other out perfectly. The dance she had just witnessed between the two of them only strengthened that belief. But…

They were like her  _parents_. She really did  _not_  need the image of them making out against a wall in her head, thank you very much. Unfortunately, it was now burned there for probably the rest of her life.

She had just been about to call out to the guys (who were having an argument about  _soccer_ , of all things) and tell them about Talbot, when Coulson had taken May over to the nearest pillar and proceeded to swallow her face (okay, slight exaggeration, but still). Their hands were all over each other—as were their lips—and they _definitely_  didn’t look like they were just acting.

Skye’s mouth dropped open for the second time that day, and her eyes bugged out so far that she felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets. She nearly covered them with her hands, but chose instead to take it all in, as blackmail evidence to use against them later.

May and Coulson had a lot of explaining to do when they got back to base, because Skye was not gonna let this go.

Ever.

* * *

Their kiss was just as in sync as their dancing.

They didn’t want it to look too sloppy and gross, otherwise people—namely Talbot—might stare. It was true that public displays of affection made people uncomfortable, and usually they averted their eyes, but having a hot, messy make out session sometimes had the opposite effect. In order for it to work, the kiss had to be intimate enough for people to feel embarrassed by watching, but not excessive to the point that they were grossing them out.

This wasn’t their first rodeo, they knew what to do. In fact, going undercover as a couple was practically their forte. Back before Melinda pulled out of field duty, they were the first pick for these kinds of ops. They knew what they were doing and exactly how to execute it flawlessly. 

They’d just forgotten how  _right_  it felt _._

How right it felt to kiss, how right it felt to touch, how natural it felt to hold one another close in their arms. 

As cheesy as it sounded, it felt like coming home.

They kissed slowly and languidly, taking their sweet time, and making sure they looked completely engrossed in each other. Which, if they were being honest, wasn’t actually a part of their cover. They hadn’t been this close in years, and Phil was wondering (through the light-headedness Melinda was causing with her mouth) why they hadn’t just done this earlier.

Preferably in a more private setting, and without the team waiting for them to check back in.

He pushed Melinda back slightly until his back was to Talbot, and their sides were gently touching the corner of the pillar, giving them at least a little bit of cover from all the eyes in the room. He stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb, and she teased the ends of his hair at the nape of his neck as their kiss grew more intense.

Phil could feel a low, quiet moan start at the back of Melinda’s throat, the sound making him grip her waist even tighter and filling him with exhilaration.

Phil reluctantly pulled away from her lips and began placing little kisses to the side of her mouth and cheek so she could see when their way was clear. They were still on a mission after all, and they were professionals. Although, when he stole a glance at her face, he noticed with delight that her eyes were still closed and her lips were still parted from their kiss.

He wasn’t the only one feeling the figurative ‘sparks’ practically crackling between them.

Phil kissed his way to her ear—his heart nearly pounding out of his chest as he savored the feeling of her soft skin under his lips—before resting his cheek against hers, listening to her heavy breathing and taking in the scent of her hair. He cleared his throat and waited a moment before speaking.

“That was—”

“All clear. Move.” Melinda cut him off, putting some (previously non-existent) space between them, and smiling up at him, although he could see her smile was a little forced, a glimmer of uncertainty in her eyes.

He smiled back, and she took his offered arm as they made their way to the hallway, sticking close to each other as two people in love would.

Once they were alone, he could feel Melinda start to pull away, but he held onto her arm firmly.

“May.” She made a move to turn on her comms but he stopped her again. “ _Melinda_.”

“We have to brief the team.” Melinda said, finally looking up at him, her hand dropping to her side.

Phil held her gaze as he slowly penetrated the bubble of space she usually kept around herself, stopping only a breath away. He grasped her arm gently with one hand and grazed her cheek ever so slightly with the knuckle of his other.

“We’ll talk about this after the mission?” Phil’s eyes flickered between her eyes and her lips, aching to kiss them again.

Melinda nodded almost imperceptibly, her eyes were still unsure.

Phil nodded back and turned slightly away from her, head down.

He was nervous all of a sudden.

That one kiss may have just changed their entire relationship, and he wasn’t sure if it would be for the better. He knew how he felt of course, but even after all these years of knowing her, Melinda still surprised him. She may not feel the same way, and this could end in disaster.

Phil curled his hand into a fist to force himself to refocus, and was about to turn on his comms, when he felt soft fingers caress his fist until he relaxed it. He looked questioningly at his partner, feeling his heart give a hard thump at the sight of Melinda’s affectionate smile.

She lifted his hand and pressed her lips against the same knuckles he had just brushed across her face with, lingering a moment before moving away and reaching to switch her comms back on.

“Don’t look so worried, Phil.” she whispered, smiling that half smile he loved so much.

As a large grin spread over his face, Phil wondered if maybe their relationship wasn’t ruined at all, but rather was starting a new chapter.

* * *

_“Punch her in the face?”_

_“I did.”_

_“Good.”_

Melinda couldn’t help but smile when he looked at her like that. With his eyes all tender and staring at her like he never wanted to look away. The look that always seemed to disrupt her usually steady breathing pattern because of the way it made her heart beat faster. 

Melinda could tell he wanted to talk about what happened on the mission, and she was ready for it. She felt like part of her had woken up after their kiss. A part that had been sleeping—or had perhaps been ignored—at the back of her mind and heart for a long time, but had come roaring back with a vengeance when their lips touched. It was the part of her that never stopped being in love with Phil Coulson. And if she had to bet, she’d guess her partner was feeling about the same as she was.

Oh yes. Melinda was  _more_  than ready to finally breach the conversation they’d been dancing around for years, (and a reprise of the kiss from the ballroom wouldn’t exactly be unwelcome either), but she had one more question for him first. 

“Why did Skye do this,” Melinda mimicked Skye by gesturing at her eyes with two fingers, and then pointing them back at Phil. “To us in the hallway, before we came in here?”

This time Phil couldn’t hold back his laugh. Skye had been staring at the two of them intently since they got back from the op. Her “I’m watching you” gesture from the hallway only increased Phil’s certainty that she knew something. He didn’t know how she knew (probably from hacking something) or what she thought of it exactly, but he could tell she knew something had happened between him and Melinda. And Phil got the distinct impression that she was equally parts excited and disturbed by it. 

He made his way over to where Melinda was and sat directly beside her, their thighs touching as he stared into his best friend’s eyes.

“I have a feeling,” Phil murmured softly as he slid his still-ringed left hand behind her hair, resting it on the back of her neck, and not missing the way she leaned into him. “It may have something to do with this.”

Melinda’s eyes closed and her hands came up to grip the lapels of his suit as he pressed his lips to hers gently. She sighed and melted into his embrace. So much for talking. 

It didn’t take long for the two of them to become completely lost in each other, their kisses becoming more feverish and their hands more frenzied as they began making up for lost time. 

They only parted when they heard a distinctive girly shriek come from the doorway.

…Whoops. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on tumblr, but since Face My Enemy is now a year old as of two days ago, I thought I'd celebrate by posting this here too. I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
